Jacob Reisner Family in 1930

I have recently been spending time researching the descendants of Rose (Levitt) Goldstein's half-sister, Rebecca (Levitt) Reisner. I do this to help me possibly identify second cousin and third cousin DNA matches if they don't happen to reply to my messages.

Rebecca Levitt arrived in America in 1891 or 1892 and was living in New Jersey by 1900 with her father, Max Levitt, and his second wife, Goldie Segal. See Levitts in Woodbine for several early census records and Jacob Reisner in the Census, 1910-1920 for the Reisner family.

Jacob Reisner, after living in New Jersey in 1910 as a boarder in the Levitt household, moved to New York City by 1911, where he and Rebecca married. However, in 1921, according to Jacob's obituary, they moved to Springfield, Massachusetts, where their growing family was living at 14 Hollywood Street in 1930.

1930 U.S. census, Hampden County, Massachusetts, population schedule, Springfield, Ward 6, enumeration district 84, sheet 10A, dwelling 116, family 178, Jacob N. Reisner; image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com: accessed 16 January 2020); citing NARA microfilm publication T626, roll 911.

Following are closeup images of the Reisner family, which is the second-to-bottom family on the page.

New Ancestry Database (Social Security Applications and Claims Index)

I've been checking out the new U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 at Ancestry.com. Not every possible name is going to be found in this relatively new database (not by a long shot), but for those which are there, it is possible to find some new information or confirm theories.

In this database, I found Adele (Reisner) Levitt, a granddaughter of Max Levitt, my husband's great-grandfather who changed his name from Levitas to Levitt because he thought Levitas sounded too fancy. I have found no record of him or his descendants using the surname Levitas in America. (However, Max's brother Emanual still used the surname Levitas.)

Well, according to this database, in Adele's Social Security application, she listed her parents as Jacob Reisner and Rebecca Levitas. I have never seen Rebecca's last name referred to as Levitas - only Levitt. Although Max (Rebecca's father and Adele's grandfather) had been using Levitt since at least 1903, when he became a naturalized citizen, it appears that the family still recognized that the name used before immigration was Levitas (or Lewites).

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Jacob and Rebecca Reisner

Rebecca (Levitt) Reisner and Jacob Reisner are buried in B'nai Jacob Cemetery in West Springfield, Massachusetts. They both have memorials at FindAGrave (Rebecca and Jacob).

For the translation, I used JewishGen's Reading Hebrew Tombstones, Steve Morse's Deciphering Hebrew Tombstone Dates in One Step, my rudimentary knowledge of Hebrew, and some help from the Tracing the Tribe Facebook page:

Here lies the woman Rivka

daughter of the worthy Mordecai

Died on 13 Adar 5722

May her soul be bound up in the bond of eternal life

Beloved Wife

And Mother

Rebecca

Died Feb. 16, 1962

Here lies worthy Jacob Nathan

Son of Mendel

Died on 26 Tamuz 5725

May

Beloved Husband

and Father

Jacob

Died July 26, 1965

Sunday's Obituary ~ Jacob Reisner

Springfield Union, Springfield, Massachusetts, online images (www.genealogybank.com).
July 27, 1965, p. 14, col. 5. Jacob Reisner obituary.

Jacob Reisner, 75, of 98 1/2 Fort Pleasant Ave. died Monday in Wesson Memorial Hospital following a brief illness. He was born in Austria, son of the late Mendel and Rachel Reisner, and came to this country in 1905. He lived in New York City until 1921, when he moved to this city with his late wife, the former Rebecca Levitt, who died Feb. 16, 1962.. He had been general foreman for Asinof and Sons Co. both in New York and later in Chicopee until 1934. He later operated a grocery store on Fort Pleasant Ave. for many years until 11 years ago. He was a member of B'nai Jacob Synagogue, Maccabean Lodge, Knights of Pythias No. 23 and Springfield Jewish Home for the Aged. He leaves three sons, Atty. Samuel and Joseph, both of this city, and Harold of West Hartford, Conn.; two daughters, Mrs. Adele Levitt and Mrs. Roselle Lewis, both of Longmeadow; two brothers, Benjamin and Alex, both of Brooklyn, N.Y.; nine grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren, and several nieces and nephews. The funeral will be held today at 2 p.m. at Harold R. Aschey Memorial Chapel. Rabbi Moses D. Sheinkopf and Cantor Herman Abramson will officiate. Burial will be in B'nai Jacob Cemetery, West Springfield. Memorial week will be observed at the home of his son, Atty. Reisner at 27 Bronson Ter.

A couple of observations:
(1) There is no mention of the two daughters who pre-deceased him. See Reisner Twins.
(2) There is mention of the move from New York City to Springfield in 1921, which helps confirm my theory that they moved from Manhattan soon after the death of their infant daughter.
(3) The reference to working for "Asinof and Sons Co. both in New York and later in Chicopee" helps confirm the World War I Draft Card that I thought was for him, which mentions that he worked as a tailor for Essenoff & Sons.

Jacob Reisner in the Census 1910-1920

My mother-in-law's mother, Rose (Levitt) Goldstein, was one of four children of Max Levitt (1858-1935) and Golda Segal (1869-1952). I shared census records for her family from 1900-1930 early on in this blog.

Rose also had three or four older half-siblings, children of Max Levitt and his first wife, Adele, who died before the family came to America:

Manuel Levitt: He was supposedly born about 1883 in Russia and "ran away" when told the family would be going from New York City to Woodbine, New Jersey. I have found no evidence to support this story. Interestingly enough, I found that Max Levitt's brother's name was Emanuel Levitas and he remained in New York.

Minnie Levitt: She was born June 1887 in Russia according to the 1900 census. I have found no more information about her.

Rebecca Levitt: She was born about 1889 in Russia and was the one cousin whose family kept in touch with her younger half-siblings.

David Levitt: I have several conflicting birth dates (and birth places) for him, ranging from 1885-1891, in Austria, Russia, New York or New Jersey.

I have found some basic information about Rebecca Levitt.

Sympathy Saturday ~ Reisner Twins

I would like to take this opportunity to remember twin sisters, one of whom died due to being born prematurely and the other who died as a teenager.

These girls were first cousins to my mother-in-law.

Manhattan (New York City) Death Certificates, 1919-1948. Certificate no. 1066 (1921), Sarah Reisner,
FHL Microfilm 2027054, Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Sarah Reisner died on January 11, 1921, after having been born on January 9, 1921, to Jacob Reisner and Rebecca (Levitt) Reisner (half-sister to Rose (Levitt) Goldstein). The ONLY reason I knew to look for this death certificate is, again, thanks to the wonderful memory of my mother-in-law, who told me that her sister, Naomi Reisner, had a twin who died as a baby.

Photograph of Naomi Reisner
Courtesy: Jeff Kontoff

Sadly, Naomi Reisner died a couple of weeks before her 17th birthday, in Springfield, Massachusetts.

See Naomi's FindAGrave memorial here. Although her gravestone indicates that she died at 17 years old, she was actually just two weeks shy of her 17th birthday.

And Naomi's stone includes a photograph of her.

Thank you to Find A Grave volunteer, Jeff Kontoff, for all his work in the Jewish Cemeteries of West Springfield, and for giving permission to share this photograph here.

Tombstone Tuesday and Genealogy Serendipity

Last month, my husband and I decided to fulfill one of my own longtime Find A Grave photo requests and we drove to a group of Jewish cemeteries in West Springfield, Massachusetts from our home in eastern Massachusetts.

I knew that Great Uncle Eddie Levitt and wife, Great Aunt Adele (Reisner) Levitt were buried in Beth El Cemetery in West Springfield. The Find A Grave page for Beth El Cemetery includes a map which notes that there are four Jewish cemeteries on Kings Highway in West Springfield: Beth El (in two sections), B'nai Jacob, Kodimoh, and Beth Israel.

I parked my car in a rather central location near a small building, and a man approached asking if he could help us. It turned out he worked for a vault company and was there to prepare a vault and assist with a burial later in the day.

Well, I explained about Find A Grave and that we were looking for the gravestones for Edward and Adele Levitt and he was the one to walk ahead and let us know where it was.

 

Sunday's Obituary ~ Uncle Edward Levitt

My mother-in-law's uncle Eddie moved from southern New Jersey to Springfield, Massachusetts, between the births of his two children in 1933 (born in NJ) and 1937 (born in MA). Springfield is where his wife, Adele Reisner, was from. (Adele was the daughter of his older half-sister, Rebecca Levitt.)

GenealogyBank has his obituary in its Recent Obituaries database. This means that I don't have an image of it, but a transcription. The following is from page 24 of the Tuesday, August 23, 1988 issue of the Union-News of Springfield, Massachusetts.

Former store owner Edward Levitt, introduced television to Springfield
Edward Levitt, 80, of 7300 Radice Court [Lauderhill, FL], founder and retired 40-year owner of Levitts TV Center, Springfield, died yesterday in Holy Cross Hospital, Fort Lauderdale.
Born in Woodbine, N.J., he lived in Springfield many years, moving to Florida after his retirement in 1974. He was graduated from the R.C.A. Electronics School of Chicago, and after taking many other TV courses, he introduced television to the Springfield area in 1934.
He was a member of Beth El Temple, the Samuel Sherwood Lodge of Masons, the Scottish Rite Bodies and Melha Shrine Temple and the Maccabean Lodge, Knights of Pythias.
He leaves his wife, the former Adele Reisner; a son, Marvin B. of Longmeadow; a daughter, Saundra E. Solomon of Longmeadow; a sister, Rose Goldstein of Ventnor, N.J., and seven grandchildren.
The funeral will be tomorrow afternoon at the Harold R. Ascher and Son Memorial Chapel with burial in Beth El Cemetery, West Springfield.
Memorial week will be at the home of Marvin Levitt, 54 Glenbrook Lane, Longmeadow, with evening services.

I have shared a photo of an early business of his: Levitt's Electric Service, in 1930's Woodbine, NJ.

Gussie Levitt in Springfield, Massachusetts

One of my husband's great uncles (Uncle Eddie Levitt, b. 1908) moved from Woodbine, New Jersey, to Springfield, Massachusetts, around 1934. I recently realized that I didn't have birth dates for his children, and I hadn't yet found his family in the 1940 US Census, so I thought I'd take a look for them in Springfield in 1940.

Detail from 1940 U.S. Census, Springfield, Hampden, Massachusetts, Roll T627_1709,
E. D. 22-100, Page 5B, Line 69, household of Edward Levitt

31-year-old, New Jersey born, Edward Levitt rents his apartment at 83 Walnut Street for $37 per month. His wife, Adele, is 26 and was born in New York. (She also happens to be the daughter of his older half-sister, Rebecca.) They both have four years of high school education. Their children are Sandra (age 6, born in New Jersey) and Marvin (age 5, born in Massachusetts). This is in error; actually it was just before his 3rd birthday. Also the last column shown here notes that they lived in the "same place" five years earlier (but not the same house).

Also noted in the 1940 census, but not shown in this image, is Edward's occupation, which was Proprietor of Radio Repair. In fact, there is still a Levitt's Television Center in Springfield, which evolved from Levitt's Radio Repair. My mother-in-law remembers that her uncle Eddie was very successful in Radio and Television repair.

Look who else is listed with this family: Gussie Levitt, grandmother, age 69 (born about 1871) and a widow. Although it states she was born in Massachusetts, she was born in Russia, and was a naturalized citizen. Funny thing is, she lived in Woodbine, New Jersey, and was enumerated there in the 1940 US Census as Goldie Levitt (with an incorrect age of 62).

So sometime in early April 1940, Gussie Levitt likely travelled up to Massachusetts to visit her youngest son and her grandchildren and got enumerated both in Woodbine, New Jersey and in Springfield, Massachusetts in the 1940 US Census.

Bubbie's Bubbie was enumerated twice in 1940!